RUS IN URBE
Urban customs appear of more interest and importance than rural usages
by reason of the greater complexity of relations implied by the
interdependence of members of a populous community. In the country the
organization of society is more simple, and the life of the fields, if
more tranquil, must always be less vivid, and, if the term may be
allowed, less conscious than that of the town. Nothing, however, is more
certain than that the formation of towns came after and was in most
instances the progeny of rural conditions. It is an amazing circumstance
that not until the middle of the last century did the great city of
Manchester emancipate itself from the last traces of feudal subjection
by the purchase of manorial and market rights. Just as the word
_pecunia_ is derived from _pecus_, just as the merchant's mark is in all
likelihood descended from that of the yeoman, even so in many municipal
appointments there is strong evidence of the once all-prevalent
agricultural element.
If we turn to London, we shall discover that its administration was
conducted, to a large extent, on country and manorial lines. The
necessary result was chaos. As Mr. J. H. Round observes, "The genius of
the Anglo-Saxon system was ill adapted, or rather wholly unsuitable, to
urban life ... while of unconquerable persistence and strength in small
manageable rural communities, it was bound to, and did, break down when
applied to large and growing towns, whose life lay not in agriculture,
but in trade. In a parish, in a hundred, the Englishman was at home, but
in a town, and still more in such a town as London, he found himself at
his wits' end." But the practical spirit, the common sense of our race,
successfully asserted itself--e.g., in the case of the Sheriffs, who in
London are elected by the citizens. In general, sheriffs are appointed
by the Crown, and, as the name implies, they are strictly county
officers. In the case of the special franchise of the Fitzwalters we
have seen how eagerly the Corporation embraced the opportunity afforded
by the sale of Baynard Castle to secure greater freedom and homogeneity
in the government of the City.
Subordinate to the sheriff in the administration of a county are various
classes of bailiffs; and the bailiff bore to the lord of a fee much the
same relation as the sheriff did to the King. For one or other of these
reasons the mayors of provincial towns were, in the early days of local
autonomy, termed bailiffs. By a charter granted in 1200 King John
permitted the citizens of Lincoln to elect two of their number "well and
faithfully to maintain the provostship (_præposituram_) of the city."
Twenty-two years afterwards the persons holding this office were called
upon to represent the city in a dispute with the burgesses of
Beverley--"Ballivi civitatis Lincolnie summoniti fuerunt ad respondendum
burgensibus de Beverlaco." The record continues: "Et Major Lincolnie et
Robertus filius Eudonis ballivi Lincolnie veniunt et defendunt," etc.
Maitland, in his edition of Bracton's "Note-Book," in which these
particulars occur, suggests that the name of one of the bailiffs has
been omitted, but Mr. Round is doubtless right in holding that the
senior bailiff was the "Mayor of Lincoln." Stevenson's "Report on the
Gloucester Corporation Records" (9th Appendix to the 12th Report on
Hist. MSS.) renders it certain that the titles were interchangeable. "A
noteworthy circumstance," he says, "is that although the office of
Mayor of Gloucester was not created until 1483, one Richard the Burgess
is frequently described in the witness clauses as 'tunc Majore de
Glouc.' The dates of these deeds range between _circa_ 1220 and _circa_
1240. Sometimes this appears to be the title of the senior Bailiff, as
Richard Burgess and Thomas Ouenat are described as Bailiffs in a deed
_circa_ 1230, but in another deed of the same date Burgess is called
'Major' and Ouenat 'Bailiff.'"
In some boroughs the old royal officer, the Portreeve--the title is a
hybrid compounded of the Anglo-Saxon _gerefa_ and the Latin _porta_ (not
_portus_), alluding to the gate, where the markets were held--bore sway.
At Tiverton, which was incorporated in 1614, the offices of Mayor and
Portreeve existed side by side, and down to the year 1790 the latter
exercised the power of summoning certain people to attend the septennial
perambulation of the Town Lake--a stream of water the property of the
inhabitants. On such occasions the Portreeve completely effaced the
Mayor, who is not mentioned by name in connexion with the proceedings.
The following extracts from a record in the Court Leet books of the
proceedings on September 1, 1774, will demonstrate that the celebration,
which took place entirely within the confines of the borough, was a
survival of a state of things anterior to the grant of a charter.
"A procession and survey of the ancient rivulet, watercourse, or town
lake, running from a spring rising near an ash pollard in and at the
head of a certain common called Norwood Common, within the said Hundred,
Manor, and Borough to Coggan's Well near the Market Cross in the town of
Tiverton aforesaid, belonging to the inhabitants of, and others his
Majesty's liege subjects, living, sojourning, and residing in the town
of Tiverton aforesaid, for their sole use and benefit, was made and
taken by Mr. Martin Dunsford (Portreeve), Henry Atkins, Esq. (Steward),
Thomas Warren and Philip Davey (water bailiffs) and the Rev. Mr.
William Wood ... and divers other persons, free suitors, tenants and
inhabitants of the said town, parish, and hundred of Tiverton, by the
order of the honourable Sir Thomas Carew, baronet, Dame Elizabeth Carew
and Edward Colman, Esq., Lords of the Hundred, Manor and Borough
aforesaid, the first day of September in the year of our Lord one
thousand seven hundred and seventy-four.
"The Portreeve and Free Suitors, having adjourned the Court Baron, which
was this day held, proceeded from the Court or Church House in the
following order:--The Bailiff of the Hundred with his staff and a basket
of cakes; the children of the Charity School and other boys two and two;
the two water bailiffs with white staves; music; Freeholders and Free
Suitors two and two; the Steward; the Portreeve with his staff; other
gentlemen of the town, &c., who attended the Portreeve on this occasion;
the Common Cryer of the Hundred, Manor, and Borough aforesaid, as
assistant to the Bailiff of the Hundred with his staff.
"In this manner they proceeded at first to the Market Cross, and there
at Coggan's Well, the Cryer with his staff in the well made the
following proclamation in the usual and ancient form--'Oyez! Oyez!!
Oyez!!! I do hereby proclaim and give notice that by order of the Lords
of this Hundred, Manor, and Borough of Tiverton, and on behalf of the
inhabitants of this town and parish, the Portreeve and inhabitants now
here assembled, publicly proclaim this stream of water, for the sole use
and benefit of the inhabitants of the town of Tiverton and other his
Majesty's liege subjects there being and sojourning, from the Market
Cross in Tiverton to Norwood Common." They then proceeded in the same
order through the Back Lane, in every part as it ran and through the
ancient path of the water bailiffs time out of mind and made the like
proclamation at the following places.... The Portreeve and free suitors
and others that attended them in their way noted every diversion and
nuisance that seemed to affect the Lake, and afterwards returned to
Tiverton and dined at the Vine Tavern, where they gave the following
charity children and other poor boys that attended them twopence
a-piece....
These duties are now performed by the Mayor and Corporation, but the
custom was observed in the traditional manner at least as late as 1830.
We have ascertained that not only did the Portreeve take the lead on
these occasions, but, like the Mayor and other members of the
Corporation, he was ex officio guardian of the poor of the town and
parish--a privilege which he shared with them alone. We have here,
therefore, an instance of dual authority lasting well into the
nineteenth century, or nearly six hundred years after London had purged
itself of the feudal element in its administration. To appreciate its
full significance we have to remember that there existed, side by side
with corporate towns, others which were not actually corporate, but were
known, nevertheless, as free boroughs or liberties, the reason being
that the owners of tenements in them held of the lord by burgage tenure
in the same way as the freemen of Liverpool held of the King, and that
there were manorial courts, which exempted the burgesses from the
jurisdiction of the Sheriff's Hundred Court, the Sheriff's County Court,
and even the higher courts of the Crown.
The executive officers, the Portreeve and the Bailiffs exercised
functions probably as old as the borough itself, and therefore, in
almost every instance, to be traced to the freer times preceding the
Norman Conquest. Stoford, in Somerset, a good type of such a town,
retained its constitution until the middle of the eighteenth century. In
the reign of Edward I. it included no fewer than seventy-four burgages;
and the burgesses set such store by their privileges that they would not
permit an inquisition to be taken by the jury of the county save in
conjunction with a jury of their own. The borough had a guildhall, the
"Zuldhous," for which a rent of 2_s._ was paid to the lord of the fee
by certain Representatives of the "Commonalty." Commenting on this
circumstance, the late Mr. John Batten, F.S.A., remarks: "It proves that
the burgesses had not acquired the true element of a corporation, by
which the Guildhall would have passed by law to the members for the time
being; but that it was necessary to convey it to certain persons as
feoffees or trustees." Stoford, however, had its official seal, bearing
the ungrammatical, but intelligible, legend,
"S. COMMVNE BVRGENTES STOFORD."
This may seem rather an example of _urbs in rure_ than of _rus in urbe_,
for it was on such half-emancipated towns that corporate boroughs like
Hereford looked down (see above, p. 177), and precisely because of their
subjection to a lord. Stoford, and similar places, were deemed, and
were, wholly, or almost wholly, rural, and the real question is how far
the term urbs is applicable to them. As used in this connexion, it is
intended to denote precisely what the term "borough" did in its widest
signification--namely, a self-governing community; and the "free" but
non-corporate boroughs were clearly more allied to ordinary manors than
to towns and cities priding themselves on their independence.
The terms "portreeve" and "bailiff" are extremely familiar, and the
offices they denote are by no means extinct; but, in addition to these
functionaries, there has been perpetuated a whole family of minor
ministers even more closely associated with the agricultural aspects of
town life. Mr. G. L. Gomme, F.S.A., so well known for his labours in
various fields of antiquarian interest, has devoted particular attention
to this matter, and for what follows we are indebted entirely to his
industrious research. He points out that "the old village community was
organized and self-acting," and "possessed a body of officers and
servants which made it independent of outside help." These officers and
servants were, in fairly numerous instances, retained long after the
village had outgrown its primitive limits. In quite a variety of places
we meet with pound-keepers, pound-drivers, and pinders; and the hayward
also has been found in as many as fifteen different towns. In the same
list are included the brookwarden of Arundel, the field-grieve of
Berwick-on-Tweed, the grass-men of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the warreners of
Scarborough, the keeper of the greenyard in London, the hedge-lookers of
Lancaster and Clitheroe, the molecatcher of Arundel, Leicestershire, and
Richmond, the field-driver of Bedford, the herd, the nolts-herds, the
town swine-herds of Alnwick, Newcastle, Shrewsbury, and Doncaster, the
pasture-masters of Beverley and York, the moss-grieves of Alnwick, the
moormen and mossmen of Lancaster, the moor-wardens of Axbridge, the
fen-reeves of Beccles and Southwold, and the woodwards of Havering and
Nottingham.
It will occur to most people that, if these offices were maintained, the
reason must have been something more than the mere force of
conservatism, great as that has been in the steady evolution of English
life; and such was undoubtedly the case in most of, if not all, the
cases cited. In other words, the townsmen, individually, as a body, or
in the persons of a limited number of elect, continued to enjoy certain
rights, and to hold a financial stake, in the soil surrounding that on
which their town was planted. The officers were often paid not in cash,
but in kind, either a quantity of grain being allotted to them or a
piece of land. The latter form of remuneration, which was the more
common, is exemplified at Doncaster, where there is a field called the
Pinder's Balk, which the pinder cultivated for his own profit. At
Malmesbury, it appears, he occupied the position of honour held in other
towns by the Mayor, and his salary is represented by a piece of land
called the Alderman's Kitchen.
Let us now turn to the communities themselves. At Nottingham resident
burgesses have a right, falling to them in order of seniority, to the
"burgess part"--i.e., a piece of land, either field or meadow, for which
each pays a small ground rent to the Corporation.[14] These "parts"
number 254, and they are of varying value, so that, as Mr. Gomme puts
it, they constitute "a sort of lottery." At Manchester there are 280
allotments, each about an acre in extent, in which all the commoners
have an interest. To forty-eight landholders is assigned an acre each,
and twenty-four assistant (?) burgesses have each of them an additional
acre. At Berwick-on-Tweed there are two portions of land, of which one
is demised, under the name of "treasurer's farms," by the mayor,
bailiff, and burgesses to tenants. The other part includes sundry
parcels called meadows ranging from 1 1/4 to 2 1/2 acres; and every year
at a meeting of the burgesses--the "meadowguild," as it is termed--the
lands vacated by the death or departure of those last in occupation go
to the oldest burgesses or burgesses' widows eligible by residence, the
right of choice depending on seniority.
The land belonging to the Corporation of Langharne is similarly
allocated. When an occupier dies, the profits accruing from his share
are kept by his representatives, and at the ensuing Michaelmas Court the
burgess next in age to the deceased is presented by the jury, and
obtains the share previously held by him. Mr. Gomme points out that the
reverence for age discoverable in so many of these customs is
characteristic of the Teutonic races and of primitive communities in
general. An interesting feature of this case is that corn is sown in 330
acres for three years in succession and during the next three years they
are grassed out.
The heading of the chapter is "Rus in Urbe," and, still following Mr.
Gomme's guidance, we have now to trace a transition that occurred in
the use of these public lands as the urban element became more and more
preponderant. It seems that while there are boroughs with common pasture
only, there has been found no instance of a borough having arable and
meadow allotments, and no common pasture. The inference is that, as the
community grew more addicted to mercantile pursuits, they were less able
to devote themselves to the cares of husbandry, and, accordingly, the
lands ceased to be cultivated. But they were still of considerable value
for grazing purposes. The merchants' cattle and horses might be placed
in them--the latter, perhaps, being subsequently entered in the service
of trade. Existing arrangements in boroughs which have abandoned
agriculture afford clear indications that at one time allotments were
carried out and rules enforced with regard to cultivation and the annual
crops.
The history of many towns shows that they formerly enjoyed rights of
common which they no longer enjoy, and the manner in which these became
lost is in numerous instances a mystery. When, from being lands of which
the tenants were virtually seised for life, they passed through some
evolution into being the property of the corporation let to freemen or
others as the case might be, they might not improbably be sold for the
good of the community at large. In earlier days the right may have been
surrendered by timid or ignorant townspeople under the pressure of a
local lord of the manor strong enough to set the law at defiance, or a
compromise may have been effected between him and those in temporary
enjoyment of the benefit. These, as we have observed, sometimes
consisted of no more than a fraction of the inhabitants, and, as the
population increased, this would be a diminishing fraction, with the
result that outsiders would be apathetic regarding the fate of the
common. Where there was a special qualification, it was not necessarily
seniority. At Huntingdon, for example, it was the freemen dwelling in
"commonable" houses who were privileged to use the common.
There were other restrictions than those already named. In the locality
just mentioned "commonable" burgesses, if we may imitate their manner of
speech, might depasture two cows and one horse from Old May-day till
Martinmas, and four sheep from Martinmas till Candlemas. At Coventry, in
what are called Lammas Lands, the allowance is two horses and one cow.
How very wise and necessary these limitations were may be gleaned from
the following extract from a decree in Chancery in 42 Elizabeth. The
bill--we have modernized the spelling--recites that,
"Divers years past sundry godly and well-disposed persons having
commiseration of the poor estate of the said town and parish, did in
sundry times in divers kings' reigns assure certain lands, tenements,
rents, common of pasture, of profits of markets and fairs and other
annual commodities under divers and sundry persons for the ease and
relief of the same poor inhabitants of the said town and parish, and
namely one William, sometimes Lord of the Town and Borough of Torrington
Magna aforesaid, by his deed did assure unto the free burgesses of the
said town, and some others of his free tenants of his said manor
dwelling in the parish of Torrington aforesaid, common of pasture for
their beasts and cattle in and throughout his waste grounds within his
manor of Great Torrington, lying within the aforesaid parish and known
by divers names there, by the name of the Wester Common and one other by
the name of Hatchmoor Common with, others, which waste grounds in the
whole do contain about five hundred acres of land and are lying very
near adjoining to the said town on each side thereof, the which hath
been and so might continue and be very profitable and commodious for all
the poor inhabitants of the said town and other free tenants of the said
manor that by the same grant ought to have common of pasture therein, if
the same were used in any reasonable rate or with any indifferency
according to the good and charitable mind and intent of the said granter
thereof, but in what form or what the words of the deeds are the said
complainants could not express.
"They, or some of them [the defendants], do continually oppress and
surcharge with their beasts, sheep, and cattle the common grounds, so as
the poor inhabitants cannot well keep a cow or horse thereupon for their
use and commodity in any good estate, whereas if the same were used with
any indifferency according to the true intent of the donor thereof,
every inhabitant within the said town that hath any ancient burgage to
which the said common of pasture was granted might well keep two kine or
a cow and a gelding or a horse beast with little or no charge. All which
was devoured and eaten up by six or eight of the richest greedy persons
of the same town and the inhabitants thereof."
But the benefit of common was sometimes not merely attenuated by the
action of a powerful and covetous few, but, as was before observed,
wholly or partially lost. The following passage from the same bill
throws some light on the point:
"And also the said Roger Ley under colour of a lease, which he himself
with the residue of his consorts made of certain tenements, parcel of
the said lands and tenements, unto certain of the children of the said
Ley wherein he had cunningly inserted parcel of the same common ground
contrary to the knowledge and weeting of the residue of his cofeoffees
or some of them had entered upon parcel of the said common ground called
Hatchmoor or lying in Hatchmoor, wherein the said complainants, having
burgages within the said town, and all other that dwell in the ancient
burgages or dwelling-houses within the said town, ought and had used
time out of mind to have common of pasture, without any colour of lawful
right had enclosed and tilled two parcels thereof containing about
fourteen or sixteen acres and made divers leases thereof to persons
unknown, and had shut up an ancient lane or way, commonly called Dark
Lane, leading from the said town to the said common of Hatchmoor,
through which the inhabitants of the said town had always time out of
mind, until the said enclosure, used go and drive to the said common, to
the great hindrance, hurt, and damage of the said complainants, and to
the disinherison of the said town for ever."
That towns, and even great towns, abode by the traditions of country
life, is now abundantly manifest, but the indications above given shed
only partial light on rural conditions in their earliest and fullest
form. These will furnish the theme of the following chapter, which, it
is hoped, will furnish the clue to much that is mysterious in the data
thus far supplied.
RURAL